1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a vehicular seat assembly having a selectively movable headrest and to a vehicle which incorporates the seat assembly and, more particularly, to a low profile vehicular seat assembly which is coupled to the body of a vehicle and, in response to a force which is communicated to the vehicular seat assembly from the vehicular body, moves the headrest assembly from a first position to a second head reception position.
2. Background of the Invention
A vehicular seat typically includes a headrest assembly having a headrest adapted to provide support to the head of the occupant of the seat. Particularly, many of these headrests are selectively movable toward the occupant when the occupant exerts a certain amount of force against the seat (i.e., against the occupant contacting surface of the seat). Such a force typically occurs in a rear impact type of vehicular collision and such headrest movement is effective to allow these headrests to more effectively prevent neck and/or spinal column injuries (commonly known as “whiplash”) such as may occur during a severe impact. While these prior seat and headrest assemblies do allow for selective headrest movement, they suffer from some drawbacks.
By way of example, each of these prior headrest assemblies typically include a plate and/or spring assembly which is operatively disposed within these seats (e.g., just below the occupant contacting surface) and which, when forcibly contacted by the occupant of the seat, causes these headrest assemblies to move in the desired manner.
particularly, such a deployed plate and spring assembly undesirably increases the width of the vehicular seat in which it is disposed, thereby reducing the amount of space within the passenger compartment, preventing the seat from folding, and causing the seat to provide a relatively unesthetically pleasing overall appearance. Moreover, oftentimes the headrest is inadvertently and undesirably moved due to the placement of heavy packages against the spring and plate assembly or due to children or animals playing on the seat. Further, while it is desirable to have the headrest move very shortly after vehicular impact has occurred, the present configuration is not typically activated until a relatively long time has passed after such vehicular impact has occurred (e.g., until the occupant is actually “forced” into the occupant contacting surface of the seat). That is, in these prior configurations, the headrest is only actuated after the occupant has first compressed a certain amount of seat material (e.g., such as foam) as the occupant forcibly contacts the seat, thus undesirably lengthening the headrest “actuation time” (i.e., the time between the occurrence of the impact and the initiation of movement of the headrest). The present invention overcomes these drawbacks in a new and novel manner.